A traditional passive tap recording technique includes recorders that are deployed along routes of communications. In this technique, each recorder operates similar to a “sniffer” by analyzing pass-by communication packets. The recorder records the packets corresponding to certain communication sessions based on its configuration.
In an IP telephony environment at, for example, a customer center, recorders are typically deployed either at a voice gateway, which interfaces between the Internet Protocol (IP) network and the public switched telephone network (PSTN), or at switches in order to stay along the routes of the communications. This technique has the advantages, among others, of (1) minimum intrusion into a communication system, (2) cost effectiveness in deployment for companies with centralized office locations, and (3) easy scalability for compliance recording.
To communicate with any agents at the customer center, a customer communication device, such as a time domain multiplexing (TDM) or a voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone, first sends communication signals to a call-processing device of the customer center, such as a soft switch. The communication signals can be sent either directly to the call-processing device in case of IP to IP communications or via a media processing device, such as a voice gateway in case of TDM to IP. The communication network can be a PSTN network or an IP-based network.
Once the communication signals have been received, the call-processing device then routes the communication signals to an agent phone. After several rounds of communication signal exchange, media communications between the agent's phone and customer's phone can proceed via the media processing device and distribution devices. The distribution devices are network routers and switches.
In order to record the media communications using passive tapping, recorders are deployed at the media processing device or distribution devices using the network traffic monitoring or duplicating features, such as Cisco™ Switch Port Analyzer (SPAN) feature, on these devices. These tapping features are often available to the recorders that are directly connected to the media processing device or distribution devices, namely to recorders deployed a customer center telephony system.
The traditional passive tap recording technique is typically deployed in a telephony environment that has little to no “intelligence” in managing and recording media communications. Customer Centers are perpetually looking for ways to improve the recording features of their telephony components. One way, among others, is to provide more “intelligence” within the customer telephony system and the recording system.